ALPINE SKI. SOCHI, Russia – After about 10 more centimeters of fresh snow fell overnight on the slopes of Sochi’s Rosa Khutor, the third and final World Cup ladies super-combined was canceled on Sunday.

Although course workers were busy throughout the night trying to clear and prepare the course, the warm temperatures and fresh snow simply made for a surface that was too unstable to race on.

“I think it was the right decision,” said Lindsey Vonn. “All the girls talked in the finish after the second inspection,” Vonn said. “We all felt it wasn’t safe enough. The snow was just rotten … like sand, there’s no surface to it. It’s not safe enough to race.”

Because the World Cup calendar is drawing to a close, FIS officials decided that the super-combi race cannot be rescheduled, thus the SC title – based on the two completed of the three originally scheduled races – goes to Vonn.

Vonn won the first super-combi – originally scheduled for Val d’Isere but then rescheduled in St. Moritz. Maria Hoefl-Riesch won the second race – also in St. Moritz – but Vonn finished hundredths of a second behind her, thus gets the title, which is the 14th globe of her World Cup career and her third straight SC title.

FISalpine.com
Sunday 19 February 2012